If you have anxiety and you know it, clap your hands: Tips for caring for anxiety

As you’ve read in previous posts, I have anxiety. I’ve written about it a few times in the past year. This post today is about what has helped my anxiety tremendously. I thought maybe, it could help others suffers as well. I’ve come to realize over the last 5 years, just how important self-care is when you have anxiety. I have never been the one who do things to make my self happy and just take care of myself. I goal was to always make other happy. That’s what I did, and let me tell you, it took a toll on my not taking care of my needs and happiness too. It worsened my anxiety by like 100. I wasn’t doing things that made me happy. I wasn’t eliminating the things that made me unhappy. I just wasn’t really taking care of my anxiety the way I needed too. Sometimes, self-care can be hard to do when your anxiety is bad, because most of the time, you just want to crawl in a hole. I get it.DISCLOSURE:I am not a professional in any way. I am simply someone who has anxiety and knows what helps me and thought maybe this could help others with their anxiety.

Hobbies:

I have found that having a hobby or two, or three can help manage anxiety. It keeps your mind and yours busy. Over the course of dealing with anxiety, I’ve picked up a few hobbies that have really helped me. Sewing is one of them I learned how to sew in high school but stopped sewing after I graduated and then started up again about three 4 years after I graduated. I watched YouTube videos, read articles and found so many patters for me to sew. I invested so much time sewing that one year for Christmas, I made everyone’s gifts. I made quilts, reversible purses, infinity scarves, hats, pajama pants, makeup bags and all kinds of other stuff including baby clothes. If y’all want to start a new hobby and you think sewing would be a good one, check out this pattern for a simple makeup bag. Super easy, if you have basic sewing machine skills that is. Another hobby I have is Photography. I love cameras and taking pictures. I started taking pictures back when I was in high school. I did it for fun for a while and then started doing family photos for people all over Facebook. After years of doing that, I decided that it gave me too much anxiety to do it for actual people that want professional photos done, so I stopped doing it for everyone but family and friends. I mainly like to do it for fun and more so of landscapes, and nature.My third and most favorite hobby of course, is blogging. I started blogging before I met my husband in 2013 but didn’t really get into it until October of 2015, which was the year and month I got married and I was also six months pregnant, so I felt I had a lot to blog about. Blogging has helped me more than anything with my anxiety. Well I feel my anxiety about to hit hard, I started writing things down; feelings, thoughts, solutions, anything I could think of and then it would give me an idea for a blog post. I figured out how to sometimes channel my anxiety into something creative. Doesn’t always work, but for the most part it does.

Self-care:

This one took me so long to do. I am nit the one who does anything for themselves. I am always doing for others and it started taking a toll on me. Here are a few things I have done for myself that make me just feel good. I signed up with ipsyfor the $10 monthly makeup bag. I did that for over a year, and it was nice to have something specifically come for me every month that I was interested in.

Another thing I now like to do for myself that I haven’t done in over 10 years, is get manicures and pedicures. I used to get manicures done all the time, but never pedicures. I never use to like anyone touching my feet. I’m not going to lie, it feels great and I plan to keep doing it for myself. Not saying that you should go and pay to get your nails done, but you should make time to do them yourself or ask a friend to do them for you, if that’s what you’re into of course.

Just do things that make your body and mind feel good. Go to the gym, get your nails done, do a facial mask, sit in the bathtub and relax. Just do something FOR YOU.

Anxiety help:

One of the things I have found to calm my anxiety is Aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is the practice of inhaling the scent of essential oils to improve your well-being. One theory of how they work is that by stimulating the smell receptors in your nose, they can send messages to your nervous system. They are also thought to have a subtle effect on the body’s chemical and energy systems. Because of this, aromatherapy is often used as a natural remedy to relieve anxiety and stress. Some don’t believe in this and that’s okay. It’s whatever works for you. My anxiety is the worst at night when I am trying to go to sleep. Something I have found to help is an app called Sleep Sounds. It’s calming sounds like rainfall, nature sounds and fire crackling. I’ve been using it for the past couple of days, so far, it’s really helped me ease my racing mind to where I am able to fall asleep.Another thing I suggest if your anxiety is bad and you just can’t seem to ever get out of it, is to make a doctor’s appointment for it. I did and it has helped so much. I know this option isn’t for everyone, but if you can’t find a solution to controlling your anxiety, I highly suggest getting professional help. Nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes you just have so much in your brain, that you need the help sorting everything out.

The best thing I can say to do that will alleviate some of the stress and anxiety in your life is, to cut ties with people who only cause you issues. Friends, and family. If they judge you, cause issues in your personal life, make rude comments towards you and/or your kids, or just make your life all around, hard, CUT THEM OUT. I can’t tell you guys how many people I’ve cut out of my life for starting drama with me and my family. It’s just not needed in my life and it’s certainly not needed in yours.

Anxiety is the worst! I had perinatal anxiety when I was pregnant with my second, barely sleeping at night b/c I would like awake stressing over things that were so silly, I couldn’t even remember them on waking! Glad you’ve found things to help you with yours!

Oh I can relate so much to this. I have anxiety about a few things. One thing I’ve found that helps is self study, meditation, and moving. If I have time to sit and stew on things then anxiety wins. My main advice is the day after an attack to give yourself time. Anxiety can be exhausting so let yourself rest if you need to!

I appreciate your sincerity about your challenges and love your approach to handling your stress. All of your pointers are very good especially self care. We women need to practice it more as we give so much of ourselves to family and others.

Some really great tips here that anyone can use. I absolutely hate feeling anxious – my kids and I call it the “Doom On You” feeling like from the Ice Age movie. Having a whole arsenal of tactics to use to diffuse anxiety really helps me. I love the Atmosphere app (probably the same as what you use).

Jessie, thank you for being there and being compassionate…with yourself most of all. Your sentiments on hobbies and self care are spot on. Too often we put the proverbial oxygen mask on others while our plane crashes. Being empowered to cut toxicity–at the root–is a must. Keep up the great work. And try meditation. Happy sewing!

Thanks for being so open and honest about anxiety! I also have it and am currently doing therapy for it, and even cutting out people who have triggered me for far too long! It is SO helpful to have go-to self-care practices to keep anxiety less intense. I love meditating now for mine, it’s very helpful for me!